Awards

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A "Washington Post" Best Book of 2001, Miller's powerful debut is the basis for her Sundance Festival award-winning film by the same name. Acclaimed by the "New York Times" as "the work of a talented and highly visual writer, " the vibrantly fresh and lustrous stories in Miller's collection explore the multifaceted lives of women in seven arresting portraits.

Review:

"Just when you begin to think...that women's literary material is limited...something like Personal Velocity happens to remind us that good material is everywhere. [Miller is] a wonderful writer." Carolyn See, The Washington Post Book World

Review:

"Rebecca Miller's debut story collection is a series of eye-opening portraits of women who are either struggling to attain self-knowledge or who are hopelessly plagued by it....Miller's prose is alarmingly unvarnished, as if she's hovering above...questions of identity and desire with transcendent impartiality....Miller might pretend to be detached and objective as she probes these quandaries, but she's always humane, always honest, and always entertaining." Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times

Review:

"[S]pare, elegant stories....[T]he author obviously knows well the various cloistered social worlds of New York City and its rural environs whose occasional collisions she deftly portrays....Simple prose goes far in exploring complicated lives." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Miller, who has been an actor and a filmmaker, shows obvious talent for inhabiting a wide range of interior lives. She's equally at home with a trophy wife as she is with a coffee-shop waitress. It's that nimbleness and curiosity that makes Personal Velocity jump off the page." US Weekly

Review:

"Miller does know something about the people in these worlds...but the affectless prose...doesn't allow for much character development or resolution, and often reads like flat reportage. Some grit and a few moments of poignancy are in evidence, but the collection provides little insight into the unique inner workings of seven very different women." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"It should not surprise readers of this refreshing first collection that Miller is a filmmaker, for each story is as sharply rendered and neatly contained as a film shot....Miller presents perfect little portraits. It is a shame to have to use the cliche compulsively readable to describe such an original collection. Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"Miller tackles her topics, and ours, with wisdom, sophistication, and guts." Glamour

Review:

"Each story is crafted with a cunning and precision that explores and often explodes the lives of Miller's subjects..." Laura Anderson, American-Statesman

Review:

"Personal Velocity is a gutsy, striking debut." David Daley, The Hartford Courant

Review:

"If I were still teaching high school English, I'd order class sets of Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity. I'd want my students to follow Ms. Miller's journey into the human heart. I'd want them to see the power of simplicity in her writing. My students would surely realize that Personal Velocity is about them and their families, that this remarkable writer reveals what is under our noses. And isn't that the gift of the true artist?" Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

Synopsis:

A Washington Post Best Book of 2001, Rebecca Miller's powerful debut, Personal Velocity, is the basis for her Sundance Festival award-winning film by the same name. Acclaimed by The New York Times as "the work of a talented and highly visual writer," the vibrantly fresh and lustrous stories in Miller's collection explore the multifaceted lives of women in seven arresting portraits. From within the secret self of each character we see the surprising shape of her life created as she hurtles through it. Modern and diverse, these women of different classes and ages struggle with sexuality, fate, motherhood, infidelity, desperation, and an overriding will to survive. We meet Greta, a cookbook editor who is chosen by Tavi, the hottest writer of his generation, to edit his new book. The book becomes a best-seller and Greta is propelled out of her marriage by her own ambition and success. The story, however, ends with a poignant flashback to the moment when one morning Greta realizes that ambition has grabbed her as she looks down at her kind, lackluster husband's wing-tip shoes. She suddenly knows she is leaving him and that their marriage is effectively over. Other characters include Paula, a pregnant twenty-one-year-old, who is on the run from the horror of a man who was hit by a car and died walking her home from a club the night before; Delia, an abused, working-class wife who goes into hiding with her children; and Louisa, a painter who moves rapidly from one lover to the next, acting out a self-perpetuating drama over which she has no control. Edgy, fearless, and beautifully spare, Personal Velocity marks the emergence of a singular new voice in American fiction. "Personal Velocity ... remind[s] us that good material is everywhere. [Miller is] a wonderful writer." — Carolyn See, The Washington Post Book World "Rebecca Miller's debut story collection is a series of eye-opening portraits of women ... humane, always honest and always entertaining." — Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times "Personal Velocity is a gutsy, striking debut." — David Daley, The Hartford Courant "Each story is crafted with a cunning and precision that explores and often explodes the lives of Miller's subjects...." — Laura Anderson, American-Statesman "Miller tackles her topics, and ours, with wisdom, sophistication, and guts." — Glamour "If I were still teaching high school English, I'd order class sets of Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity." — Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

"Review"
by Carolyn See, The Washington Post Book World,
"Just when you begin to think...that women's literary material is limited...something like Personal Velocity happens to remind us that good material is everywhere. [Miller is] a wonderful writer."

"Review"
by Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times,
"Rebecca Miller's debut story collection is a series of eye-opening portraits of women who are either struggling to attain self-knowledge or who are hopelessly plagued by it....Miller's prose is alarmingly unvarnished, as if she's hovering above...questions of identity and desire with transcendent impartiality....Miller might pretend to be detached and objective as she probes these quandaries, but she's always humane, always honest, and always entertaining."

"Review"
by Kirkus Reviews,
"[S]pare, elegant stories....[T]he author obviously knows well the various cloistered social worlds of New York City and its rural environs whose occasional collisions she deftly portrays....Simple prose goes far in exploring complicated lives."

"Review"
by US Weekly,
"Miller, who has been an actor and a filmmaker, shows obvious talent for inhabiting a wide range of interior lives. She's equally at home with a trophy wife as she is with a coffee-shop waitress. It's that nimbleness and curiosity that makes Personal Velocity jump off the page."

"Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Miller does know something about the people in these worlds...but the affectless prose...doesn't allow for much character development or resolution, and often reads like flat reportage. Some grit and a few moments of poignancy are in evidence, but the collection provides little insight into the unique inner workings of seven very different women."

"Review"
by Library Journal,
"It should not surprise readers of this refreshing first collection that Miller is a filmmaker, for each story is as sharply rendered and neatly contained as a film shot....Miller presents perfect little portraits. It is a shame to have to use the cliche compulsively readable to describe such an original collection. Highly recommended."

"Review"
by Glamour,
"Miller tackles her topics, and ours, with wisdom, sophistication, and guts."

"Review"
by Laura Anderson, American-Statesman,
"Each story is crafted with a cunning and precision that explores and often explodes the lives of Miller's subjects..."

"Review"
by David Daley, The Hartford Courant,
"Personal Velocity is a gutsy, striking debut."

"Review"
by Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes,
"If I were still teaching high school English, I'd order class sets of Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity. I'd want my students to follow Ms. Miller's journey into the human heart. I'd want them to see the power of simplicity in her writing. My students would surely realize that Personal Velocity is about them and their families, that this remarkable writer reveals what is under our noses. And isn't that the gift of the true artist?"

"Synopsis"
by Firebrand,

A Washington Post Best Book of 2001, Rebecca Miller's powerful debut, Personal Velocity, is the basis for her Sundance Festival award-winning film by the same name. Acclaimed by The New York Times as "the work of a talented and highly visual writer," the vibrantly fresh and lustrous stories in Miller's collection explore the multifaceted lives of women in seven arresting portraits. From within the secret self of each character we see the surprising shape of her life created as she hurtles through it. Modern and diverse, these women of different classes and ages struggle with sexuality, fate, motherhood, infidelity, desperation, and an overriding will to survive. We meet Greta, a cookbook editor who is chosen by Tavi, the hottest writer of his generation, to edit his new book. The book becomes a best-seller and Greta is propelled out of her marriage by her own ambition and success. The story, however, ends with a poignant flashback to the moment when one morning Greta realizes that ambition has grabbed her as she looks down at her kind, lackluster husband's wing-tip shoes. She suddenly knows she is leaving him and that their marriage is effectively over. Other characters include Paula, a pregnant twenty-one-year-old, who is on the run from the horror of a man who was hit by a car and died walking her home from a club the night before; Delia, an abused, working-class wife who goes into hiding with her children; and Louisa, a painter who moves rapidly from one lover to the next, acting out a self-perpetuating drama over which she has no control. Edgy, fearless, and beautifully spare, Personal Velocity marks the emergence of a singular new voice in American fiction. "Personal Velocity ... remind[s] us that good material is everywhere. [Miller is] a wonderful writer." — Carolyn See, The Washington Post Book World "Rebecca Miller's debut story collection is a series of eye-opening portraits of women ... humane, always honest and always entertaining." — Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times "Personal Velocity is a gutsy, striking debut." — David Daley, The Hartford Courant "Each story is crafted with a cunning and precision that explores and often explodes the lives of Miller's subjects...." — Laura Anderson, American-Statesman "Miller tackles her topics, and ours, with wisdom, sophistication, and guts." — Glamour "If I were still teaching high school English, I'd order class sets of Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity." — Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and gifts — here at Powells.com.